Global Panel Established to Tackle Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution

Governments have signed up in principle to establish a new intergovernmental science-policy platform with a vision of the management of chemicals, waste and pollution prevention. The move, agreed in an intergovernmental session on 19-20 June 2025 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, is unprecedented in global environmental governance to bolster the science foundation of decision-making on chemical safety and pollution prevention worldwide. The new panel will be built on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

This step to create this panel is the follow-up to a move made during the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in 2022, calling for the creation of an intergovernmental science policy forum that would bridge the policymaking and environmental science divide for chemicals and waste. In the upcoming years, extensive negotiations were held and the panel formally opened its gates in 2025. Some of its mandates include undertaking global reviews, identification of scientific needs, provision of data in a retrievable format to policy-makers, and helping countries, particularly developing ones, to improve decision-making and environmental planning.

This panel will be a supplement to two other key science bodies in the UN system — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The three panels collectively offer an integrated approach to addressing the triple planetary crisis: climate change, loss of nature and biodiversity, and pollution and waste.

The value of such a panel is also brought out by growing environmental and public health impacts of pollution and inadequately regulated chemicals. Municipal solid waste will be estimated to rise from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes in 2050. World direct cost on waste management was approximately USD 252 billion in 2020. Furthermore, pollution results in 6.5 million deaths every year, and pollution-related deaths increased by 66% during the past two decades. Chemical disease burden is a serious challenge to public health systems, particularly in middle-income and developing countries.

The new panel not only needs to take scientific data and convert it into policy with action but also apply extensive lead time vision through horizon scanning. Horizon scanning entails scanning and forecasting potential future challenges from chemical agents and pollution, which can enable interventions and preventive action to be taken in good time. Among the core mission areas of the panel is to offer support to developing nations in scientific guidance and technical support so that they may build policy appropriate to their unique environmental circumstances.

The panel will be established by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which will also administer and coordinate it. On establishment of the foundation agreement, the next move is to organize the first plenary meeting of the panel. Through the session, countries will decide on the first work programme of the panel, determine areas of high priority activity, and establish links to other institutions in environmental science, policy, and business sectors.

Setting up the panel is timely as more global cooperation is required to battle increasing environmental challenges. By offering a formal forum for policy-making based on science, the panel will inform regulations and best practice across sectors from manufacturing and agriculture to municipal waste and public health.

This action is viewed as a key contribution to environmental multilateralism, providing countries with a model of a collective and evidence-based approach to the harmful impacts of chemicals and pollution. The panel will be an effective instrument for shaping international and national action, ultimately leading to making strides with sustainable development with environmental and human welfare ensured.

Source: UN Environment Programme (UNEP), published on July 1, 2025
Credits: United Nations Environment Programme